Familiars, Useful?

[BV210]

Inspired by the thread on Fox Familiars in the Rules Forum.


I have played wizard characters over the (many) years I've played D&D. Some with familiars, some without. One feature I've never really done much with is the ubiquitous familiar.

Who has played a wizard/sorcerer with a familiar that wasn't merely set dressing? What did you do to help bring them to life and be a useful addition to the game? How did they work at higher levels?

(This question applies to animal companions and special mounts, too).

Enlighten me as to why a familiar is worth the effort.

 

[Stalker0]

We had a rogue/wizard with a raven familiar. The raven shared his use magic device ranks, and so learned to use wands and things.

 

[Odhanan]

With feats that allow a wizard to deliver touch attacks through a familiar and this and that option/build, a familiar can be worth it. In some usual dungeon crawling, the familiar is useful sometimes (scout/spy etc) but most of the time remains a liability.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I am personally not a fan of adding new characters to a party; familiars are not pets, as they're intelligent and can talk. You're supposed to RP them to some extent, but isn't that the point of playing your character? (I think the same thing about intelligent weapons.)

I do not like them having the same skills as the mage, as that's just diluting the mage's character concept. (So my Int 6 rat familiar somehow knows almost as much about magic as I do? Gah!)

As for mechanics, having half the hit points of a wizard puts them into wimpy territory. Fortunately most GMs I've played with let you put the familiar in a pocket and treat them like an attended magic item when it comes to being hit by Fireball spells or what not; maybe that's even in the rules somewhere. There are ways of making them useful, but a lot involve a lot of risk or are only useful for a few types of familiars. (I wouldn't use any familiar except a bat to deliver touch spells, and even then only in deeper darkness.)

Finally, when it comes to familiars such as ravens that don't really draw attention (it's just sitting in a tree) it's really annoying to the GM because there's no way in the rules a non-druid NPC is going to be able to realize they're being watched. Same goes for a druid using wildshape to spy on NPCs... that needs a fix IMO.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Ravens are great familiars since they can talk to everyone and are excellent message transmitters.

Familiars can be great for providing backup to the wizard or sorcerer - for instance, a familiar with a ring of spell storing (or ioun stone of spell storing) or something similar can use the magic on your behalf.

I've never seen them effectively used for delivering touch spells though - the problem of a tiny creature provoking AoO when moving into range to deliver the spell is the killer.

 

[caudor]

My familiars always seem to get killed and everyone laughs about it...like in the second D&D movie. :\

 

[DreadArchon]

Familiars are really handy, actually. There's a whole bunch of nice abilities that you can swap them out for.

Seriously though, I don't consider them useable without house rules to change them. "Dur hur, my only class ability costs me XP and can only be used once per year..."

 

[DragonLancer]

In my experience familiars are often not worth the hassle. A few small bonuses just are not worth it.

One issue that I see fairly often or hear about from others, is players using their familiars in combat! What are great way to ensure that you get screwed over when your little rat pal gets a sword to the head.

 

[Arkhandus]

My sorcerer/wizard Vaeron used his hawk familiar, Snatch, pretty often as a scout, a Light-bearer, and support in combat. Snatch has battled other scouting familiars in the air and even gargoyles, though to little effect in the latter case (though at least he proved kind of distracting to them, while Vaeron and the other PCs attacked from range). Never terribly effective or anything, but handy and used a lot.

In the Oriental Adventures campaign I ran, the numerous hengeyokai sorcereresses in the party often had their familiars around and active in searching, scouting, and chatting. Of course, being hengeyokai, they spent a lot of time in their own tiny-animal alternate forms. It was wierd how many of those kinda PCs we had in that campaign. I think the players of the hengeyokai roleplayed their familiars' actions as much as their PCs'. I don't recall all the familiars' names off the top of my head, but they were all named. I've never really gamed with anyone who didn't at least name their familiars.

In that same campaign, the vanara shaman's tiger animal companion was a vicious combatant, and often a significant presence in the group. Of course he was the only one who could talk to it, and keep the tiger from springing on anyone, like the small familiars of the sorcereresses.... I don't recall if the tiger had a name or not, or if the vanara shaman just preferred not to label it with a made-up name.

In other campaigns I've run, the familiars and animal companions have seen some decent use and 'screen time'. In the main Rhunaria campaign, Karil's familiar is a tressym (winged blue-grey cat from the FRCS book), introduced in the campaign as a corporeal spirit creature that came to him when he performed the familiar-summoning ritual. Carillus, as he named it, has been a frequent advisor to Karil on matters of the spirit realm and occasionally a source of amusement. Carillus has helped out a bit in combat once in a while, but mostly serves as a scout and advisor. It's been active in some manner or another in most of the game sessions since Karil summoned it. The rogue/sorceress named Mouse acquried a parrot familiar at one point (I considered it a raven-equivalent familiar), who mostly speaks up on occasion for comic relief or an odd comment or two, but hasn't been very important. Sniklis the kobold druid was fond of his dire bat animal companion, which served as his flying mount and support in battle (though he was careful to avoid Nesskill getting hurt too much).

 

[Arkhandus]

Oh: I have a few feats and prestige classes in Rhunaria that bolster familiars and animal companions. Karil has acquired two such feats so far, boosting Carillus' HP and granting him some DR and saving throw bonuses (and he has Improved Familiar as a class bonus feat from my houserules to sorcerers, which is why he has a tressym instead of a normal cat or the like).

He doesn't risk the familiar in combat generally, but Carillus tries to help out sometimes of his own accord when it seems that he should. This is after Carillus dive-bombed a kobold wizard to harass him and mess up his spellcasting, but the kobold managed to invoke a Magic Missile or somesuch without interruption to knock the familiar out cold.

Karil is about to enter the Spiritbond Exemplar prestige class from my Rhunaria documents, which will boost his summoning spells a bit and improve the bond to his familiar, as well as strengthening Carillus. I have one or two other PrCs in the setting that have some familiar-empowering ability, like the Scion of Night prestige class.